Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Most Russian stocks fell as crude
oil slid for the first time in three days and after Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, the former billionaire owner of Yukos Oil Co., was
freed from prison following more than 10 years in detention.

The Micex Index slid for the first time in six days, down
less than 0.1 percent to 1,497.23 at the close in Moscow, after
rising as much 0.3 percent. OAO Lukoil, Russia’s second-biggest
oil producer, dropped 0.4 percent to 2,027 rubles, while OAO
Surgutneftegas declined 0.6 percent to 25.5 rubles, extending
its six-day loss to 5.4 percent. VTB Group, Russia’s second-biggest lender, jumped 2.1 percent to 4.86 kopeks.

Khodorkovsky has been released after a pardon from
President Vladimir Putin, the Federal Penal Service said. His
arrest more than a decade ago had sent the Moscow index down as
much as 15 percent. Crude oil dropped 0.2 percent to $98.61 in
New York. Russia receives about half of its budget revenue from
oil and natural gas sales.

“Investors are reacting cautiously to the news of
Khodorkovsky’s release,” Ovanes Oganisyan, a strategist at
MidLincoln Research in Moscow, said by phone. “There’s still a
bunch of things that investors are concerned about, like
disregard for the rights of minority shareholders.”

The market showed a “very reasonable performance for the
week -- last active week before Christmas -- so we’re seeing
simple profit-taking but not very aggressive,” Kirill
Yankovskiy, director for equity sales at UralSib Securities in
London, said by e-mail.

Loss of Confidence

Faced with more than $400 billion in capital outflows since
2008 and the slowest economic growth in four years, Putin is
seeking to reverse a loss of investor confidence by freeing his
country’s most prominent prisoner before his scheduled release
in eight months.

Putin signed the clemency decree for Khodorkovsky for
humanitarian reasons, the Kremlin said in an e-mailed statement
today. About an hour later, the prison service announced
Khodorkovsky’s release from a colony in the northern town of
Segezha, according to a website statement.

Russia detained more than two dozen people after a rally
before Putin’s inauguration last year. Two members of female
punk-rock collective Pussy Riot remain in prison after
performing a song critical of the president inside Moscow’s main
cathedral in February 2012. The two women will be offered
freedom under an amnesty, their lawyer said on Dec. 17.

Uralkali Rises

OAO Uralkali added 3.2 percent to 175.4 rubles, rallying
for a sixth day, its longest winning streak in a year.
Billionaires Mikhail Prokhorov and Dmitry Mazepin closed deals
to buy a larger-than-expected 47 percent of Uralkali, the
world’s largest potash producer, according to people with direct
knowledge of situation.

Prokhorov’s Onexim Group bought 21.75 percent of the
Russian crop nutrient producer from billionaire Suleiman
Kerimov’s foundation, spokesman Andrey Belyak said by phone. The
agreement was announced last month. Another company controlled
by Prokhorov bought 5.34 percent that Kerimov held separately,
two other people said today, asking not to be identified as the
information is private.

The dollar-denominated RTS Index in Moscow fell less than
0.1 percent to 1,429.91. Russian equities have the cheapest
valuations among 21 emerging-market economies monitored by
Bloomberg, with shares on the benchmark trading at 4.4 times
projected 12-month earnings compared with a multiple of 10.4 for
the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.